The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease. It is the leading cause of death in the United States in both men and women. Plaque rupture is the most common type of coronary plaque complication, accounting for about 70% of fatal acute myocardial infarctions and/or sudden coronary deaths. T1-weighted (T1w) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with or without contrast enhancement (CE) has been used for characterizing coronary plaques, and shows promising prognostic capability for coronary events. However, the drawbacks of current protocols using conventional Cartesian acquisition and respiratory gating are a major hinderance against wide clinical application of this technique. Important drawbacks include: (a) anatomical coverage is limited to proximal coronary segments; (b) non-isotropic spatial resolution, specifically poor resolution along the base-to-apex direction; (c) a separate bright-blood MRA acquisition is needed as anatomical reference due to highly suppressed background tissue in T1w images. (d) long and unpredictable total scan time leading to patient discomfort and motion artifacts.
There is clearly a need in the art for improved imaging systems and methods.